Featured in Technology Today (Volume 38, Issue 4), a quarterly publication of the Louisiana Transportation Research Center.
In 2024, LTRC was awarded a generous $25,000 grant from Bentley Systems, Inc., one of our valued partners in the transportation industry (see Technology Today Volume 37, Issue 4). More than half of these funds—a total of $15,000—were designated to support K-12 teachers in public, private, and charter schools across Louisiana with classroom resources for hands-on STEM education.
Last November, LTRC leaders had the privilege of traveling to several schools throughout the Baton Rouge area and beyond to distribute 15 awards of $500 each to educators who successfully completed a grant application. Many of these teachers previously participated in LTRC’s acclaimed AASHTO STEM Outreach Solutions program (see Technology Today Volume 37, Issue 3).
“STEM education...fosters a wide range of important skills, including problem solving, critical thinking, communication, curiosity, and persistence. These qualities are crucial to the success of Louisiana’s students as they live and work together in the future.” - Stacey Wilton, LTRC Education Outreach Program Manager
Teachers and schools receiving awards included:
- Charae McMorris, Oak Grove Primary School
- Belinda Sargent, E.K. Key Elementary School
- Sarah Armand, Phoenix Magnet School (Bolton Academy PK-5)
- Nichole Airhart, St. Martin STEAM Academy
- Tiffany Virdure, Our Lady of Mercy School
- Robin Price, SLU Lab School
- Carolyn Murphy, St. Aloysius School
- Nathalie Roy-Mitchell, Glasgow Middle School
- Dustin W. McCrory, St. Amant Middle School
- Jennifer Woodard, Central Intermediate School
- Alysha Guidry, Westside Junior High School
- Ida Smith, Benton Middle School
- Nikita LaCour, Scotlandville Pre-Engineering Magnet Academy
- Rebecka Rocquin, Ponchatoula High School
- Robyn Delaune, Walker High School
Nathalie Roy-Mitchell of Glasgow Middle School in Baton Rouge invested her award monies into her students’ innovative Roman Technology program. The funds enabled students to build a model Roman road throughout the Glasgow campus and use real leather-working tools to make their own sandals in an experimental archeology project.
Alysha Guidry, a science teacher at Westside Junior High School in Walker, shared with LTRC that she used the grant funds to purchase supplies to enhance and expand her classroom botany program. Her students used this new germination equipment to plant and manage an Aquaponics garden, ultimately harvesting lettuce to share with the local community. Guidry says she looks forward to a continued partnership with LTRC to grow her students’ knowledge of engineering topics in the future.
Stacey Wilton, LTRC’s Education Outreach Program Manager, is excited about the opportunity the Bentley Grant affords to advance these initiatives around the state: “STEM education promotes so much more than science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It fosters a wide range of important skills, including problem solving, critical thinking, communication, curiosity, and persistence. These qualities are crucial to the success of Louisiana’s students as they live and work together in the future.”
LTRC remains committed to enhancing STEM education for Louisiana students through its outreach initiatives and the generous contributions of our industry partners. For more information on opportunities for educators, including future grant applications, please contact Stacey Wilton at (225) 767-9141 or stacey.wilton@la.gov.